Charleville

Ben and I hit the road on Saturday morning for the South-West Queensland ‘big-smoke’. Charleville is about 90km west, and with some road-works they’re doing, takes about a bit over an hour. It was a pretty boring drive. Not much to see in the way of… anything! We arrived in town at about 11:00 and the place was pretty busy. There are two main-streets in Charleville, forming a sort of a T-junction thingo. There were some mini-market-style things happening. I was tempted to buy myself my first genuine Akubra hat (just for shits and giggles) but quickly reconsidered when I saw the price tags! Eeeek!

We quickly met up with Caroline (Cas), who is the P.E. teacher who works at Charleville, Augathella and Morven schools. She shares some government accommodation with some other teachers. Her place is pretty nice (or at least, she made it pretty nice). After coffee and a chat for an hour, we headed over to Michelle’s place, who is another teacher who works at the School of Distance Education. We cooked up some steaks for lunch and had a few laughs before Cas took us on a Grand Tour of the town for the afternoon.

As we were driving along, Cas was telling us how the ‘Fattest Man in Australia’ lives at Charleville. Apparently, he made it into the Guinness Book or Records a couple of years ago (but has since been surpassed). However, just after we were talking about him, we stopped at an intersection and Cas spotted his car as he drove straight past us!! (apparently he had to get special suspension… and when he gets a wheel alignment he has to be IN the car!). Naturally, we quickly hung a right and sped after his black Commodore in hot pursuit. I managed to get a couple of candid photos of him… it was great fun. I felt like a sleazy reporter for Today Tonight!! Gotcha, Fat Man!!

We continued our Tour a la Grande and visited the airport, the racecourse, the sports field, the Cosmos Centre, and a couple of touristy-type places. We stopped at a park where there is a lake with about a million ducks. I wanted to get a photo or two, but was warned that they can be rather aggressive if they think you have food. So I quickly jumped out and grabbed a couple of snaps while the others stayed in the car, in gear, with the motor running… just in case we needed to make a quick getaway. This was actually clever thinking, as the crazy Killer Ducks charged me and I was quickly mobbed. Run, Mr Perkins, Rrrrrruuuuuunnnnnnn!!!

We saw a Wedge-tailed Eagle… ah, I mean… a ‘Wedgie’. It was on the highway (having a late lunch) and as we approached it, spread its huge wings and flew out of the way. Unfortunately, many of them get hit, because drivers just think they’re big crows, who will get out of the way quickly when a car comes, but instead, because the Eagles are so big, they take longer to get up and fly out of the way, and some get hit.

We headed back to Morven in the late afternoon, and were lucky that we didn’t see too many kangaroos. I had to swerve for a little one, but managed to miss it. I did collect a little bird, though… my first wildlife damage! There were quite a few carcases along-side the road. We commented on the amount that had ended up in strange positions… especially those fully ‘spread-eagled’ for the world to see. Some of these poor kangaroos certainly did not die with dignity! :-)

I’ve got a heap of work to do today for lessons during the week. Brigitte has handed me a stack of lessons to do this week, which I’m looking forward to. Better get to it!

Hope everyone is well back home! Here's a Morven sunset for everyone to drool at for a bit! :-)